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gateway that Fuller describes Ben Jonson as working with his Horace in one hand, and a trowel in the other, when "some gentlemen pitying that his parts should be buried under the rubbish of so mean a calling, did of their bounty manumize him freely to follow his own ingenious inclinations." But the generation which can delight in the Albert Hall and the Albert Memorial has no admiration to spare for these grand relics of architects who knew their business, and, unless opinion speedily interferes to protect it, the gateway of Lincoln's Inn will share the fate of Northumberland House, the Burlington Portico, and the Tabard, for it is doomed to be pulled down!

The name Lincoln's Inn came from Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, ob. 1312, whose town-house once occupied its site. Its courtyards have a greater look of antiquity than those of the Temple. On the left of the ground-floor, at No. 24 in the "Old Buildings" were the rooms of Oliver Cromwell's secretary Thurloe from 1645 to 1659, where his correspondence was discovered behind a false ceiling. There is a tradition that the Protector came thither one day to discuss with Thurloe the plot of Sir Richard Willis for seizing the persons of the three princes, sons of Charles I. Having disclosed his plans, he discovered Thurloe's clerk apparently asleep upon his desk. Fearing treason, he would have killed him on the spot, but Thurloe prevented him, and after passing a dagger repeatedly over his unflinching countenance he was satisfied that the clerk was really asleep. He was not asleep, however, and had heard everything, and found means to warn the princes.

Two of the old gables have sun-dials with the mottoes— "Qua redit, nescitis horam,"-" Ex hoc momento pendet

æternitas." The Perpendicular Chapel, at the right of the entrance, was built from designs of Inigo Jones, and is raised upon arches, which form a kind of crypt, open at the sides, where Pepys went "to walk under the chapel, by agreement." The stained windows are remarkably good; they represent different saints, and it is not to be wondered at that Archbishop Laud thought it odd that so much

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abuse should be raised against his windows at Lambeth, while these passed unnoticed, yet would not speak of it lest he should "thereby set some furious spirit on work to destroy those harmless goodly windows to the just dislike of that worthy society." The chapel bell was taken by the Earl of Essex, at Cadiz, in 1596. William Prynne, the Puritan, was buried here. Dr. Donne, Usher, Tillotson, Warburton, and Heber were preachers of Lincoln's Inn.

In the porch is a monument to Spencer Perceval (murdered May 11, 1812), Attorney-General and Treasurer of Lincoln's Inn.

Crossing one end of the old-fashioned brick square of New Inn, we reach a handsome group of brick buildings by Hardwicke, 1843-45, comprising the Hall and the Library. In the former are a great fresco by G. F. Watts (1854-59), representing "The Origin of Legislation," Hogarth's picture of Paul before Felix, and a fine statue of Lord Eldon by Westmacott. The latter contains a valuable collection of manuscripts, chiefly bequeathed by Sir Matthew Hale. One of the curious customs, preserved till lately at Lincoln's Inn, was that a servant went to the outer hall door and shouted three times "Venez manger" at twelve o'clock, when there was nothing on the table.

The ancient

"Walks of Lincoln's Inn

Under the elms,"

mentioned by Ben Jonson have perished; but Lincoln's Inn Fields, "perplexed and troublous valley of the shadow of the Law," as Dickens calls it, is still the largest and shadiest square in London, and was laid out by Inigo Jones. Its dimensions have been erroneously stated to be the same as those of the great pyramid, which are much larger. The square was only railed off in 1735, and till then bore a very evil reputation. Gay says

"Where Lincoln's Inn, wide space, is rail'd around,
Cross not with venturous step; there oft is found
The lurking thief, who, while the daylight shone,
Made the walls echo with his begging tone:
That crutch, which late compassion mov'd, shall wound
Thy bleeding head, and fell thee to the ground.

Though thou art tempted by the linkman's call,
Yet trust him not along the lonely wall;

In the mid-way he'll quench the flaming brand,
And share the booty with the pilfering band,
Still keep the public streets where oily rays

Shot from the crystal lamp o'erspread the ways."

It was here (Sept. 20 and 21, 1586) that Babington and other conspirators for Mary, Queen of Scots, were “hanged, bowelled, and quartered, even in the place where they used to meet and conferre of their traiterous purposes." Here, also, the brave and upright William, Lord Russell, unjustly suffered for alleged high treason, attended by Tillotson and Burnet on the scaffold.

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"His whole behaviour looked like a triumph over death. . . . He parted with his lady with a composed silence: and as soon as she was gone, he said to me, 'The bitterness of death is passed;' for he loved and esteemed her beyond expression, as she well deserved it in all respects. She had the command of herself so much that at parting she gave him no disturbance. . . Some of the crowd that filled the streets wept, while others insulted; he was touched with the tenderness that the one gave him, but did not seem at all provoked by the other. He was singing psalms a great part of the way; and said, he hoped to sing better very soon. As he observed the great crowds of people all the way, he said, I hope I shall quickly see a much better assembly. . . . He laid his head on the block, without the least change of countenance: and it was cut off at two strokes."-Burnet.

On the north side of the square, beyond the handsome Inns of Court Hotel, is (No. 13) the eccentric Soane Museum, formed in his own house and bequeathed to the nation by Sir John Soane (ob. 1837), who was the son of a bricklayer at Reading, but, being distinguished as a student in the Royal Academy, and sent to Rome with the Academy pension, lived to become the architect of the Bank of England. The museum, which Mrs. Jameson calls "a fairy

palace of virtu," was especially intended by its founder to illustrate the artistic and instructive purposes to which it is possible to devote an English private residence, and is open to the public from ten to four on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Few people know of it, and fewer visit it, which is much to be regretted, since, though, as Dr. Waagen says, the over-crowded and labyrinthine house leaves an impression as of a feverish dream, it contains, together with much rubbish, several most interesting pictures.

Room I.

Sir F. Reynolds.

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"The Snake in the Grass or "Love unloosing the zone of Beauty"-bought at the Marchioness of Thomond's sale. In very bad condition.

Sir T. Lawrence. Portrait of Sir John Soane.

Room II.-(Right.)

Canaletto. The Grand Canal at Venice-a glorious picture, full of light and air, with sparkling waves and animated figures-so different to the wooden abortions usually attributed to this injured artist, that few can be said to have made his acquaintance, who have not looked upon it. From the Fonthill collection.

Hogarth. The Election. A series of four pictures.

1. The Entertainment. It is the end of the feast. The mayor is seized with apoplexy from a surfeit of oysters and the barber is bleeding him in vain. A candidate is flattering an old woman. A crowd of the opposing faction have thrown brickbats into the room, one of which has struck a lawyer on the head. A virago resents the refusal of a bribe by her tailor husband, whose son exhibits his need of it by showing his worn-out shoe.

2. The Canvassing. Bribery is exhibited in all its forms. In the background is the Excise Office. Hogarth's quaint wit is shown in the man at the end of the beam to which the crown is suspended, busily engaged in sawing it down, forgetful that he must fall with it.

3. The Polling. The rival candidates are seated in a booth to receive votes. A Chelsea pensioner is objected to by a lawyer, because he cannot lay his right hand, but only a stump, on the book. A man is bawling into the ear of another who is deaf the name of the

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